Table 3

Humoral response to vaccination on day 21 in RA patients treated with rituximab

Controls

n = 10

Pre-RTX

n = 8

Post-RTX

n = 11

Influenza vaccine, % increase

IgM, median (95% CI) responder, n

104 (96-130) 3

120 (98-139) 6

105 (88-132) 4

IgG, median (95% CI) responder, n

115 (96-191) 6

143 (72-176) 5

109 (85-139)a 5

κ-Light chain median (95% CI)

110 (101-145)a

126 (98-163)

105 (93-124)

λ-Light chain median (95% CI)

126 (98-175)a

147 (94-154)a

113 (93-199)a

Pneumococci vaccine

IgM, median (95% CI) responder, n

148 (92-541)a 8

107 (93-198) 3

105 (77-322) 5

IgG, median (95% CI) responder, n

126 (71-213)a 7

178 (102-335)a 6

107 (88-151)b 4

κ-Light chain median (95% CI)

154 (85/218)a

124 (97-211)a

105 (94-171)

λ-Light chain median (95% CI)

164 (98/571)a

227 (111-308)a

138 (88-330)a

Pre-RTX group, RA patients treated with RTX 6 days after vaccination; Post-RTX group,
RA patients treated with RTX 6 months before vaccination; Controls, RA patients never
treated with RTX. The levels of vaccine-specific antibodies at day 0 were taken as
100%. On day 21, the mean increase of antibody levels in the control group was 110%.
This value indicated the cutoff for vaccination response in the RTX-treated patients.
CI, Confidence interval.

aIncrease of Ig levels on day 21 compared with day 0, P < 0.05.

bIncrease of Ig levels in post-RTX group was lower as compared with pre-RTX group,
P < 0.027.